Workbench Wednesday... Bead inspiration....

This Wednesday I just wanted to share some pretty bead inspiration from the workbench.

I found these lovely bowls at the thrift store but they were all too chipped to use in the kitchen.

That gave me a great excuse to use them in the studio...

These blue beads set off the blue in the bowl perfectly.

I love all that sparkly goodness.

Normally I am not a bling girl, but I am in love with these...

Thanks for stopping by....

Linked with Old World Patina.

Sweet Halloween Tags

Remember not too long ago, I shared a simple tutorial on stained tags.

You can find it here.

You can do the same thing to create colored tags  by just substituting RIT Dye for the coffee and cinnamon.

An even simpler way to dye small batches of things, is to mix your dye and water in a large Ziploc bag.

Just add you tags/lace, fabric and paper right to the dye in the bag.

Squish it around a bit.

You may want to leave it in the zipped up bag to intensify the color.

Then remove the tags and let them dry like before.

I dyed some tags orange for fall.

I ran them through the Sizzix Big Shot with some embossing folders.

Then I went crazy giving them a sweet Halloween makeover.

You can see the workbench was covered with goodies...buttons, rossettes, stickers, dyed cheesecloth, lace, paper bits, vintage haloween images and halloween stickers...

I usually start by sewing paper scraps or images to the tags first.

I added some lace sewn to some as well.

Then I start gluing goodies to get the look I want...

A lot of the images are printed on muslin from the Graphics Fairy.

These will be perfect tied to pumpkins.

I just love tags...

Not sure why...

I just always have.

Maybe because they are more usable than a card.

I love a homemade card, but a tag I keep out long after I 
got it/made it....

I stamped some spider webs on vellum as well...

And punched out some spiders from black card stock.

I always think of a tag as a mini canvas for artwork.

Hope you feel inspired to try it out as well...

Thanks for stopping by....

DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint for Glass...

This summer I got some Chalky Finish paints for Glass from DecoArt. 

 I was super eager to try them out.

Last summer I painted some jars with just regular paint and they did not turn out just how I wanted.

So I assembled a few bottles and jars to coat with the paint.

As suggested, I wiped each clean bottle or jar with alcohol.

Then I started painting the bottles.

The first brush I tried had bristles that were too coarse.

So I switched to this one....

Much better.

The paint went on relatively smoothly.

You can see here that I did not cover the tops as well.

I did a whole bunch with the same color because I wanted to see how far one bottle would stretch.

You can see I did 9 bottles of varying sizes.

 This one little bottle is still almost half a bottle full.

I allowed them to dry and realized I had a cool mistake.

I removed the stickers from the Frappuccino bottles before they ran through the dishwasher.

But all the sticky residue did not come off with the washing or the alcohol.

Where the residue was, it crackled...

Which I loved!

I did go ahead and put a second coat on 4 days later to cover the areas where it was splotchy before.

I did NOT put a second coat over the crackled area.

I had also done some of the Chalkboard Paint for Glass by DecoArt on some bottles too.

I waited another four days.

I heated them all in the oven on two separate cookie sheets.

It did smell sort of bad but I had the house windows open...

  It seemed to be the chalkboard paint bottles that smelled the most.

I used these to take flowers to the fair.

It is easier to find all our entries if they all look the same.

Check out the repainted tote.

The herbs look a little sad.

This is after the fair.

I love the chalky finish on the grey bottles.

Some of the paint did chip off of them by the time we got home from the fair.

I am not sure if that was because I did something wrong.

Or if they bumped together too much in the car on the way there and back...

In either case...they turned out much better than last year's experiment with regular latex paint.

This would be fabulous for DIY wedding décor.

One little bottle of paint did those nine bottles in a variety of sizes.

With 2 coats each.

I have to say, though, that the Chalkboard Paint for glass was my favorite....

I love those bottles...

  I can't wait to use it some more!

Thanks for stopping by... 

A Raggy Rug from Old Sheets... A DIY Tutorial

I showed you in an earlier post how my daughter dyes some old sheets from the thrift store to use for a rug.

After she dyed all the sheets, she ripped them in strips.

Each strip was about an inch wide and the length of the fabric.

She removed all those loose strings.

And she cut the strips to about 6 inches long.

She cut a piece of non-slip rug mat to the size she wanted.

Hers is quite small.

About 18 inches by 24 inches.

Then she just started looping the fabric pieces through the non-slip rug mat. 

Some tutorials she had seen had merely slid the strip in and centered it.

She wanted hers to be strong so she tied each one.

Yup!

Each One.

She worked on it for about a week while watching TV.

About 1-4 hours a day.

I adore her colors...

And they actually match another rug we bought her before so they will go together.

She did every square in a row and then skipped a row between.  

She also left two rows around the edge to keep it from curling.

The back is pretty too.

Viola!

Finished!

She was very pleased wit it.

She should be.

It is awesome.

I already had the RIT Dye since I am on the Rit Dyesigner Team.

Check out my board here.

But if I had purchased it, I would have spent less than $15 on dye.

The sheets were $3 total.

I have seen other raggy rugs where this is where they really racked up the cost.

You could use fabric you already have or use old sheets like we did.  

Our thrift store sells stained sheets as drop cloths for 50 cents to $1 each,

Since we were dying them, a couple stains did not show.

And we had the non-slip rug mat already.

Sizes vary but buying one big enough for your rug will run $7-10.

So you could do this for about $30.

Ours cost $3.

My daughter entered it in the fair.

When I went to enter it, the little girl that was carrying things back to the judging tables, held it up to her face and rubbed her cheek against it.

A good sign...

Thanks for stopping by...

We will be linking up with these great blogs.

Wile RIT Dye did provide me with the dye for this project, all opinions are my own.

A Wooden Tote Makeover...

This spring my in laws came to visit. 

 They brought all sorts of treasures.

One of their friends is moving and she is getting rid of a lot of stuff.

Among the goodies was this broken tote.

Actually the tote is good.

The handle is broken.

I like the lettering on this side.

I love the weathered look of the wood.

Then there is this side.

I was not-so-much loving this side.

No worries...

DecoArt Chalkboard Paint to the rescue!

Just add two coats brushed in different directions.

Allow it to dry in between.

Then rub with chalk to condition.

Wipe it off and you are ready!

I also replaced the broken handle a branch from a tree that needed to be trimmed anyway.

White Stampin' Chalk Markers from Stampin' Up are such a great way to add chalkboard art or lettering.

They do wipe off with a damp rag but do not wipe off if you brush against it.

Plus I like having more control with the pen tip since chalk does not leave a crisp line.

Now it is all ready for my herb collection for the fair....

Thanks for stopping by....

 I received  free products to use in my designs from both DecoArt and Stampin' Up.

My designs and opinions are purely my own...

You will always hear my honest assessment of the products I use.

I will be linking up with these amazing blogs.